Shakai Taishūtō

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The Shakai Taishūtō (社会大衆党, Socialist Mass Party or Social Mass Party), abbreviated as Shadaitō (社大党), was a moderate leftist proletarian party in the early Shōwa period Empire of Japan. Formed in July 1932 by the merger of the National Labour-Farmer Mass Party and the Social Democratic Party, it was the only leftist party allowed to function throughout most of the 1930s and emerged as the third-largest party in the House of Representatives of the Diet of Japan, with 36–37 seats after the 1937 Japanese general election. Initially social-democratic and committed to the "three anti-isms" (anti-capitalism, anti-communism, and anti-fascism), the party pursued an often contradictory middle course, advocating agrarian reform and better conditions for workers and farmers while cultivating ties with army factions and endorsing Japanese actions in Manchuria. From the mid-1930s it steadily shifted rightward toward national socialism. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 it fully...

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